Haunted houses in Chicago: Our 17 top spots for 2017, many open through Saturday

A preview of what to expect at the 13th Floor Haunted House in Melrose Park. (Roger Morales / Chicago Tirbune)

A preview of what to expect at the 13th Floor Haunted House in Melrose Park. (Roger Morales / Chicago Tirbune)

Doug GeorgeChicago Tribune

As we spin our way into October, the nights come earlier and last longer, and things go bump in them. In the suburbs, on some nights, there can be heard the sounds of screaming. Mostly Thursday through Sunday nights about 7 p.m. to midnight. Yes, haunted houses are back, now through the first week of November.

Check out our Reviews, Videos and Biggest Scares.

Oh yeah, and our annual notes of caution: Most of the places on this list are not suitable for children or young teenagers. Many frankly aren’t that suitable for adults. Open hours and dates can change, check websites before heading out. “Blackout nights” in November mean the haunts turn off all the lights and let patrons go through in the dark, or near darkness.

OUR REVIEW: Your stay at the Dungeon of Doom, the sprawling haunted house in north suburban Zion, will not be brief. So multifarious are the passageways and dark alleys, the squeezy hallways and the vistas of rotting meat, of screaming, chainsawed humans, of pill-popping hospitalized crazies, that it took me close to 90 minutes to escape back into the light.

And I speak not of time spent in line trying to get in. Au contraire. I speak of time spent hoping to get out. Located in a foreboding industrial park, this isn't so much a haunted house as a haunted subdivision. The Dungeon of Doom doesn't just have a lot of real estate, it has industrial machinery at its disposal: A shaking elevator, a turntable designed to disorient, animatronics of a level to rival a Disney park, but without the “G” rating. And enough wire cages to give nightmares to a flock of birds. You may find yourself confined.

And don't count on holding hands with your sweetie. The Dungeon of Doom, a haunt on steroids, is adept at separating you from your loved ones, leaving you to wander its byways alone, wondering why you see no one, when there were all those people standing in line outside.

BIGGEST SCARE: Biggest scare? Easy. The part where you get buried alive. Also, most houses don't touch you, on the assumption that this will stop you from touching them. Not this one. Go at your own risk. Pick a night with nothing else on the docket; you might not be seen again.

OUR REVIEW: Inside a ground-level warehouse in Melrose Park exists a portal to the 13th Floor, where a 20-minute trip through a two-part haunted house awaits. After snapping a pic with a ghoul or two, enter into “Cursed: Purgatory,” a journey through a generic hell with a sinister court room, statues waiting to come to life and ranks of the undead ready to follow you home. One harrowing room turns into a tilt-a-whirl nightmare, but think twice before reaching for the rail. You may see more than just your human hands. After a short break in an outdoor scene, “Dead End District: Freakshow” begins. The first few rooms of the house? Think something between “It” and this season of “American Horror Story”: sad clowns, shrunken rainbow balloons and childhood terror. But then — meats? A hospital? Mutilated bodies? Where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns! Don't bother, there's not really a cohesive narrative here. But the design of each room is filled with sinister touches, the air puffs are unexpected and a disorienting green room is sure to fill you with your fair share of fear.

BIGGEST SCARE: There’s no sound quite like the sudden rattle of a chainsaw. A creepy killer revved up his machine more than once throughout my visit and it made me scream every time. The only thing louder than the saw may be your terrified friend squeezing your arm and yelling in your ear: “Run! Run! Ruuuuuuun!"

— Morgan Greene

OUR REVIEW: While Chipotle and Aldi are neighbors to the 13th Floor, you’ll forget all about suburbia once you enter the guarded cemetery gates. Before you escape “Purgatory,” you’ll have to crouch down and crawl through a fireplace to exit the Trophy Room. The devil is in the details at this two-for-one horror house: A vampire mansion is decorated with Hogwarts-esque moving portraits and the “Freakshow” morgues and hospital rooms are littered with pill bottles, real medical equipment and bloody limbs. Some of the monsters naturally shriek, groan or cackle, but seductive demented creatures reminiscent of Harley Quinn invited me to play with their dolls — before offering to turn me into one.

BIGGEST SCARE: Morgan’s right about the terrifying chainsaws, but my vote goes to a murky green swamp, so foggy, dark and effective, it almost feels like you’re wading through real water.

— Sade Carpenter

What it is: 13th Floor and its twisted sister haunt, House of Torment in Morton Grove, are both by the Thirteenth Floor Entertainment Group, a Denver-based national franchise.

Screening of “Lore”: 13th Floor Chicago will host a screening for fan club members of the new Amazon series “Lore” at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 13. Based on the podcast by Aaron Mahnke, “Lore” is about the scary history behind folklore and launches a six-episode first season that day on Prime Video.

Tickets and hours:$19.99-$32.99, depending on day of the week. Fast pass is $10, Skip the Line is $20. Hours are 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., with open days increase during October from weekends to 7 days a week. Special night Friday, Oct. 13; blackout nights Nov. 3-4. Scannable smartphone tickets available.

OUR REVIEW: Who can be surprised when you knowingly go into a haunted house expecting to be scared? Boy, was I misguided when it came to the Statesville Haunted Prison. The Crest Hill haven of horror provided more than enough shrieks, fantastic scenes of gore and spasming corpses to make it worth the trip.

From the goblin-esque warden welcoming the masses (complete with falling fences) to the cramped spaces where smoke obliterated your vision just long enough to be spooked by a roomful of dopplegangers from “The Ring” film, the venue will have you guessing what is a prop and what is real. (Don’t brush up against something, it might brush back.) And as for the City of the Dead — or as I like to remember, it Appalachian mountain people meet woodland creatures of the 1985 film “Legend” — it was an amalgam of scares and laughs. The “dead” space had at least one gasp moment and at least two scenes that had me recalling the 1986 film “Big Trouble In Little China” fondly. Both spaces might not be great for claustrophobics or the tall population (many tight holes you have to duck into), but the half-hour wait shouldn’t deter one from the hour-length walkthrough.

BIGGEST SCARE: Two words. The bugs. And two more words: Snakes. Mice. If you’re not freaked out by any of that, there are some carnival funhouse-esque elements that mess with your equilibrium.

— Darcel Rockett

What it is: This is a longtime haunted house out near Joliet has Statesville Haunted Prison, City of the Dead and Zombie Paintball Ride (extra charge).

What it is: Along with 13th Floor, House of Torment is a big-budget haunt with "The Swarm" (horrifying government experiment) and "Nightmare High: Fall Harvest" (zombie cheerleaders ... "give us a B! ... give us an R! … give us an A! … give us an I! ..." ).

Tickets and hours: $19.99-$32.99, depending on day of the week. Fast pass is $10, Skip the Line is $20. Hours are 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., with open days increase during October from weekends to 7 days a week. Special night Friday, Oct. 13; blackout nights Nov. 3-4.

What it is: To reach Hellsgate in Lockport, you park at the Lockport Metra lot and a shuttle will take you deep into the woods toward the Lost Souls cemetery and mansion grounds. Special packages go way beyond fast passes here: A Hell Pass ($99) sets up a "friend" for special treatment in the house.

What it is: This haunt has been remodeled for 2017 and has the cushiest waiting area. Not that you want to get too comfortable. There’s Massacre and Freak Show 3D for your ticket. Or choose from the slate of Mind Trap escape rooms.

What it is: This redesigned haunt promises new scares through 85 percent of the house, says creator and co-owner Justin Cerniuk, in its new-for-2016 location down in southwest suburban Oak Lawn. With Black Oak Grove, the Factory of Malum and Chainsaw Alley.

OUR REVIEW: Looking to satiate more than one phobia before All Hallow's Eve? Six Flags is offering six haunted houses this year, all short and sweet, with varying levels of scare. Expect tight corners and performers with practiced blood-curdling screams in the Massacre Medical Center. Big Top Terror offers an in-vogue clown house, but the vandalized Care Bears and DayGlo handprints make the rooms look like Pennywise got tired of preying on children’s fears and reinvented himself at the Spring Awakening music fest. If you make it out of the claustrophobic candy-stripe panel maze, head next to Manslaughter Manor, which houses some of the most detailed rooms in the park with enough threatening writing on the walls and surprises hanging from the ceilings to make your skin crawl. Then face your creepy-crawly fears in “Infestation!," a house tackling snakes, spiders and bees. There are rats, but they’re less terrifying than the rodent armies on Chicago's streets. Two longer offerings are Gates of Hell and Apocalypse. After you open the Gates of Hell, beware a wall rippling with outstretched palms. Entering the second part, a kid started to walk the other way and yelled to his dad, "I'm done!" But save the scariest for last: Apocalypse. On the night I visited the end-of-the-world offering set on an out-of-season water rafting ride, fog blanketed the park and rain collected on the asphalt. A brave friend who joined me on the path, with no other humans in sight, asked, "Are we going the right way?” Wandering through a shuttered amusement park ride may be fun in “Scooby-Doo.” In real life? Absolutely not. Throughout the mostly outdoor attraction, we stumbled upon a stretch of picnic tables. My friend whispered to me: "Shall we have a picnic?” I replied: "Shall we?” A zombie lurking behind us cried out: "Shelby! Sheeelbyyyyy!" Close enough.

BIGGEST SCARE: In the event of global collapse and the rise of zombie hordes, I personally would not want to find myself on a defunct Six Flags ride in Illinois. The Apocalypse gave me goosebumps — and that was before the addition of flesh-hungry monsters. In one stretch of the walk, there’s so much haze and eerie shadows that every step sends shivers down your spine.

— Morgan Greene

What it is: Come for the scares, stay for the rides, or the other way around. The park is family-friendly until 6 p.m.

Tickets and hours: $49.99 and up for general admission, plus $35 for haunted house wristband. Fright Fest continues through Oct. 31, open to 11 p.m. Friday, midnight Saturdays and 10 p.m. Sundays; days and hours vary.

What it is: Amhurst Asylum takes the "insane asylum run amok" theme and runs with it, with guests being thrown in with "Dr. Amhurst’s experiments." It's a bit of a drive, but we give this place bonus points for atmospherics, it's located out in the Indiana countryside down a gravel road with a stone gate marked Amhurst Asylum, not in a strip mall that's suddenly, you know, haunted. Plus a reasonable ticket price and the VIP line-skippers are capped at 50 per night.

What it is: Basement of the Dead has both Basement of the Dead and Shattered Haunted House for your ticket. It’s located in Aurora, walking distance from the Metra stop in Tivoli Plaza, west of Hollywood Casino Aurora.

What it is: C2H2 is an all-volunteer haunted house that dates back to 1971, formerly by the Lombard Jaycees. There are hours and low scare levels for kids.

Tickets and hours: $10-$20 on October 14-15, 21-22, 28-31, hours are 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., then 10 p.m. to midnight. (Donations for toy and coat drives or 5 items for food pantry get $5 off admission.)

What it is: Raven’s Grin Inn is not your traditional bloody chainsaw-demented clown-and-strobe lights haunted house attraction. This four-story former Victorian mansion is purported to be really haunted, and owner Jim Warfield lives there year-round and gives tours. This is definitely his high season. Contraptions, passageways and other scares in a haunt that looks the part.

OUR REVIEW: This haunted attraction proved to be the most tactile experience I’ve had to date; it will get in your psyche and have you grasping the walls. Between sidling amongst farmscapes (a la “Children of the Corn”) and animatronics that will have you doing triple-takes on the approximately half-hour adventure, Reapers Realm keeps you on your toes. After getting eaten alive by mosquitoes while waiting a half-hour to enter the confines of the scary mansion, the scenarios inside were a myriad of mental fake outs, uneven floors and strobe lights that had you bumping into walls just to exit one gore-tastic room for another. Or to put it another way: It was so worth it. (But maybe not for anyone under the age of 10. We went in with a dad-and-daughter team, only to lose them after the second room of boos.) If you go through the mansion and your adrenaline still isn’t up halfway through, the static shocks from the mad scientist room, coupled with at least one pathway that recalls the Catherine Zeta-Jones famous laser scene in “Entrapment,” will get the heart rate up. I was too chicken to venture toward the woods component, but if you’re braver and want to make an evening of it, feel free to traipse away with chainsaws as white noise makers. There’s also a Zombie Revolt aspect attached to the fun, but the cashier informed me that it just entails shining a flashlight at faux dead people.

BIGGEST SCARE: The uneven floors. It’s more scary to trip and go boom than not figuring your way out of a maze with strobe lights and maniacal laughing in your ear while walking your way into a wall again and again. Just saying …

— Darcel Rockett

What it is: Down in Hammond, Reapers Realm has an atmospheric Stone Mansion, plus Reaper's Woods out back and carnival rides.

What it is: Here's something new, a high-ropes course rechristened Haunted Treetop Trails and a zip line course done up for Halloween by the addition of roaming zombies. All at the Edge Adventures Aerial for the month of October. Family-safe areas too (Jack-O-Lantern Hollow), if you'd rather, you know, not get attacked by zombies on the end of your slide.